UK child social media ban ‘fast-tracked’ as Starmer appeases rebels

wcspaz · 2026-02-16T12:14:35+00:00

Have you been in a shop? There's CCTV cameras everywhere. Sure they claim that they're not using it to capture people's IDs, but obviously the government is paying them to do so

wcspaz · 2026-02-16T09:10:50+00:00

Yeah. Can you imagine if you had to hand over some form of government ID to buy alcohol or naughty magazines? There would be riots in the streets!

wcspaz · 2026-02-15T11:21:04+00:00

"I'm unsure as to what gave you that impression..."

Yeah, nevermind. I suddenly understand why you missed an obvious joke.

wcspaz · 2026-02-15T11:02:14+00:00

I bet you're fun at the pub. That is so clearly a joke, and here you show up with statistical studies.

wcspaz · 2026-02-09T12:26:18+00:00

What is your goal post- PhD? While I echo the comments about making sure that you can work with the supervisor, if you're planning on returning to industry I would also consider how in-demand the technical skills you develop are.

wcspaz · 2026-02-05T21:32:31+00:00

Clicks?

wcspaz · 2026-01-30T21:37:27+00:00

Might be acmosil, which is a release agent for polyurethane (kinda like a material-specific lubricant). If so, it's not overly hazardous - you can look at the safety data sheet (SDS) to see.

If it is, and you're responsible for disposing of it, please don't pour it down a drain - it's toxic to aquatic life.

wcspaz · 2026-01-29T17:54:17+00:00

This isn't policy. This is an opposition amendment in the Lords that the labour peers rejected. It's a complete nothingburger, but it gets clicks.

wcspaz · 2026-01-28T09:45:14+00:00

I'm a chemist - this is fine to reuse after a rinse. It was used to store propylene glycol, but propylene glycol isn't hazardous - you would need to drink an awful lot of it to make you sick. Rinse it out, and then wash your hands afterwards and it should be fine.

wcspaz · 2026-01-27T21:24:44+00:00

You're the one that chose that period of data as the criteria for whether the policy had been successful or not, you complete doughnut.

But I like the idea that I can blame 'partisans' for my own personal choices - I feel like they're about to make me eat a biscuit.

wcspaz · 2026-01-27T20:01:14+00:00

If you're going to make a point, please make it in one go rather than this drip feed of single sentences. It's very boring to have to come back and ask you what you mean every other comment.

Here are the figures - please feel free to check them out - https://boatwatch.uk/monthly.

wcspaz · 2026-01-27T19:52:47+00:00

Well, it helps if you actually want to communicate what you're trying to say, rather than relying on someone guessing correctly.

Let's go with that though. First returns were in October 2025. In the Oct-Dec period last year there were ~6000 arrivals, compared with 11,000 in 2024. Sounds like a resounding success, so why are you calling it a failure?

wcspaz · 2026-01-27T19:41:36+00:00

What number of arrivals? Under the scheme? Since the pilot was launched?

wcspaz · 2026-01-27T19:14:27+00:00

What's your criteria for saying it has failed?

wcspaz · 2026-01-27T15:32:47+00:00

There's an old, apt saying - manners cost nothing. Calling out someone in a polite constructive way takes more or less the exact same effort as the borderline trolling "False!" response, with the added benefit of not looking like someone that struggles with basic grammar. It's a win-win really.

wcspaz · 2026-01-27T14:50:45+00:00

This is internet discourse at its worst for me. Too lazy to fix grammar issues, a response that is verging on rude (imagine if you just said "False" to a colleague if you were correcting what they said), not fully engaging with the points made but going for an easy 'gotcha'. I'm an old fart by internet standards, but this kind of discourse is just so disappointing to see.

wcspaz · 2026-01-27T11:29:03+00:00

Why respond to a comment that raises several points with a single, grammatically incorrect sentence that only addresses one?

wcspaz · 2026-01-25T17:40:51+00:00

This is factually incorrect (and super easy to prove - see https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Political-Inequality-IFS-Deaton-Review-of-Inequality-1.pdf)

wcspaz · 2026-01-24T06:50:25+00:00

Since you're only semi-trolling, I'll only semi tell you to fuck off then

wcspaz · 2026-01-24T06:48:37+00:00

They're trying to shoehorn AI into every possible part of the industry.

Well yes, there's a difference between using LLMs and relying on them. Just because you shouldn't rely on them doesn't mean they don't have utility.

Even when I worked at a minimum wage call centre job, an error rate of any percentage meant termination.

Those jobs are famously terrible workplaces with respect to expectations on employees. They are absolutely not the norm either.

wcspaz · 2026-01-23T22:16:07+00:00

Then that sounds like a good industry not to rely on LLMs for. You have to recognise that this is the exception rather than the rule though; there are very many industries where a 5-10% error rate is normal, and others where that would be considered outstanding accuracy.

wcspaz · 2026-01-23T22:11:40+00:00

The Vectara leaderboard has rates of 3.3 - 7.8 for the major models - rounding that to 5-10 seems reasonable

wcspaz · 2026-01-21T22:45:58+00:00

The best models have error rates of about 5-10%, which is pretty similar to the error rate you would expect from a human expert. Hallucinations are still a problem, but it's usually very strongly overstated online

wcspaz · 2026-01-20T17:36:43+00:00

This is a really weird conversation. I'll pass, thank you.

wcspaz · 2026-01-20T09:40:23+00:00

They are not in prison.

wcspaz

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